Brendan McDaid

People in Northern Ireland expressed shock after CCTV footage appearing to show a man destroying a defibrillator was shared on Facebook at the weekend.

CCTV footage of the incident has now been released in an effort to try to catch the culprit who took out and damaged the life saving equipment, which had been installed outside Curry’s Spar in Church Meadows in Londonderry.

The man is seen taking and swinging the defibrillator outside the Spar shop.

The episode occurred at around 4.20am on Sunday.

Shop manager Richard Campbell said staff and local people were shocked by what had happened.

“This has caused so much anger and disgust, especially when you consider the efforts everybody put in and that it took us 12 months to fundraise or the defibrillator. The staff effort, the community effort was fantastic. People gave what they had. This is just awful.”

A sign has now been erected on the defibrillator case stating that it is out of order and missing.

“It shouldn’t be out of order, it shouldn’t be missing,” Mr Campbell said.

“This happened at 4.20am and if somebody needed that at 5am to help save someone’s life you can imagine that might have happened.”

Mr Campbell said the staff and shop customers were hoping for a replacement and will now look into how and whether this can be achieved.

Police in Londonderry are appealing for witnesses about the incident.

A PSNI spokesman said the defibrillator was removed from its storage container on the wall of a local shop and thrown onto the Rossdowney Road causing considerable damage to it.

Inspector Gregory Smyth said: “This defibrillator was installed for the whole community to use in the case of an emergency and it is very disappointing that someone would want to damage this important piece of life saving equipment. “I am appealing for anyone who has any information about this incident to contact police in Strand Road by calling 101 and quoting reference number 445 of 21/08/16. Information can also be passed anonymously via the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”